Looking for MUD (heavy on skills) plus need advice.

Firs of all, im looking for a MUD with tons of skills. I just love them.
Player base is not that important as long as there is someone online at any given time.
I would like to avoid any sci-fi MUDs, not my cup o tea (even tho few years ago it was a must for me hehe)
Im getting tired of trying them, there is so many and even when on their website is a list of skills , in game usage is very limited (like Batmud)

I read a lot of good stuff about Discworld, but i am not a fan :/

Oh...not too crazy on enforced RP either.
So, in a short summary, MUD with a big set of skills/spells where you can use them ingame and it will matter if you have plants lore or jumping on lvl 20 where every one else is at 10 (you get the point, right? )

I am aware that my list is like a drop in the ocean of muds, but i have to narrow my search, my life span is way too short to try them all for a decent amount of time

The other thing i need some help with is...DragonRealms on play.net (or any other game [mud] from this website).
I know that its pay to play with monthly subscription, my question is...is it worth it? Did any one played them, have some experience, could give me some info, cons and pros...anything?
I could not find any (proper) info about them, anything worth reading is on their forums so its PERFECT according to their players. Need some opinion from...outside ^^

I guess you should have a look at Arctic MUD, it seems to be a 100% fit (unless you forgot to mention some additional important requirements):

- Dragonlance here. No sci-fi, no neutron blasters.

- Lots of skills and spells; every class (there is a dozen of them) has their own unique set of available techniques. Choosing which skill or spell to use often means the difference between the glorious victory and the miserable defeat.

- We do have skill and spell based crafting, no doubt about that. Most of the crafting is done by magic users - they gather spell components and use them to scribe scrolls and brew potions; they enchant weapons or imbue them with powerful spirits. On top of that, many of our quests are based on crafting theme.

- Very little RP - mostly when someone is bored or is waiting for something. Perhaps, the best place for RP in Arctic is our forums. While in game, find a better use for your time - draw your sword and slash the monsters or the fellow players. PvP is unrestricted in Arctic.

- We got a devoted playerbase; the newbies who recently joined Arctic and the veterans playing for 15+ years group together for some great adventures. There are up to 50 players on-line at peak time and ~10 at quite hours. At the beginning of the wipe I saw 100+ players several times.

There is much more about Arctic MUD - visit us and see everything yourself. After all, there is nothing to lose - Arctic is a completely free game.

Player base is not that important as long as there is someone online at any given time.

Playerbase fluctuates a lot, ranging from about 3 players at minimum to about 24 players at peak times right now. (Depending on your hour and the day too.) On Average I would say, constantly about 10 players.

It's a fantasy/medieval settings.

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not too crazy on enforced RP either.

This may be to your dislike then. RP is mandatory. That is not to say that one can not "chill out" and just have fun and relax without roleplaying a virtual character, however the MUD always focused on roleplay.

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Some kind of crafting system would be nice too (skills again^^)

Crafting exists. Could be extended though (crafting different arrows would be nice)

There may be one more thing you could possibly dislike, which is that raising the skills will eventually take a long time - the more and more the character has already learned. In other words, it may take a long while to progress with a character.

This is not a problem if you focus on only one character, but if you plan to play more than one character then this can be a problem especially with time constraints.

Well, im not too god with RP, simply because im not an native english and expressing all those things by words is quite hard (at least to do it quickly enough).

I would like to feel the character. For example ...well Aardwolf will get this time :P
You have a pick lock skill, fair enough rogues/thieves should have this skill. Then we have a warrior that could bash the lock/door/chest an ofc mage that can use magic. That should be it. I should feel special that i can do one of those things. Where now, every class, every race have some kind of bonus that you can bypass class restricion. You have ghost, phantoms, you can buy keys, potions etc. Except having this skill ...anyone else can do the same. Is there a place that picking a certain class would give you an advantage in one place but big disadvantage somewhere else.
Mage - can blast you for 300 but its a one hit guy.
Warrior is strong but is thick and cant handle magic/complicated things.
Rogue - agile, med dmg, cant do magic, can open locks
etc etc
A place where class/race you want to play will have a big impact on your play, the way you play, the way npc are talking with you, how they react on your presence etc.

You may want to give Alter Aeon a try. We have a rather large pile of spells and skills, with a lot of synergy and combinatorial effects between them. Examples of this off the top of my head would be charge spells that fire when using high damage initial attacks such as backstab; lightning bolt detonating previously cast ball lightning; and the intricate interworking of the necromancer skill sets.

Our necromancer class is probably the heaviest in this regard, in that nearly all of the necromancer skills are useful all the time; next up would be mage and cleric, which have a lot more spells than there are skills available for fighter classes. Because you can multiclass, you can get all the skills and spells from all of the different classes (if you dedicate enough time.)

Hi,
The other thing i need some help with is...DragonRealms on play.net (or any other game [mud] from this website).
I know that its pay to play with monthly subscription, my question is...is it worth it? Did any one played them, have some experience, could give me some info, cons and pros...anything?
I could not find any (proper) info about them, anything worth reading is on their forums so its PERFECT according to their players. Need some opinion from...outside ^^

Thanks!

It's been some time, so I don't know if it's still valid info. I only tried it casually myself, but a significant number of our players used to also play DragonRealms paralllell to 4D in the past.

But from what they said about it, I gathered that it was pretty heavy on RP, at least back then, so I'm not sure if it would be to your liking. They used to go to DR for the RP and to us for the fun...

Wotmud.org is a Wheel of Time based game with 3 races (seanchan, human, and dark sides), 4 classes (warrior, rogue, hunter, and channeler), 38 non-spell skills (warrior, rogue, and hunter), and 49 spell skills (channeler). Each race has its own who list and global discussion channels. At any given time there are usually 20+ players around during non-peak hours, with 70+ during peak hours, spread across the 3 races. Generally, there are more humans online than the other two races. PK (PvP) is unrestricted, and each of the three races are enemies, though many times humans and seanchan will work together to kill darkies. There is an extensive number of crafting options available, including crafting saleable goods, weapons, and armor. RP is encouraged but not enforced, unless you are a member of a clan. Each clan has its own RP which its members are expected to follow.

While the choices in race, class, and skills may seem limited at first glance, there is great variety in game play depending on your class, the stats you roll, gear you wear, weapon/s you use, and skill combinations you practice. As you gain in levels, you gain practice points which you spend on learning your skills. Only channelers can practice spell skills and acquire both regular practice points and spell practice points. As a newbie it's recommended to create a human warrior from Two Rivers or a human hunter from the Borderlands as your first character to learn the game.

Warriors are usually heavy hitters with the most hit points, rogues are the dodgy, stabbing types and hunters are in between. While the channeler class is the most powerful, it is also the class with the fewest hit points. Channelers are generally considered to be glass cannons. Each non-channeler class has special abilities innate to that class, which are greatly improved from practicing certain skills. Warriors have zerk-attack, which means when they are in berserk mood (unable to flee from a fight) they are able to hit twice per fight round, rather than once. Rogues have auto-scan, which allows them to see what's in adjoining rooms in cities and roads as they move without having to enter any commands (feature may be turned off at will). Hunters have auto-track, which enables them to see tracks on the ground without having to enter any commands.

The stats you roll are dependent on the class and homeland you choose on character creation. Stats reveal at lvl 3 and if you don't like them, you can restat and start again at level 1 and get a new set of stats at level 3. Certain stats better for different classes. For example, if you are a warrior, you'll want high strength and high constitution. As a rogue, you're looking for high intelligence and dexterity. Hunters are more balanced. Channelers should look for high intelligence, will, and dexterity.

Each of the non-channeler skills are available to any class of player, however, the number of skills you are able to practice depends on your class and which skills you are practicing. For example, a warrior practicing a warrior skill costs 1 practice point per practice session, while a warrior practicing a rogue skill costs 3 practice points per practice session. Which weaves (what we call spells) a channeler can practice is dependent on which elements and element-levels they have practiced. For example, the ice spikes weave requires a channeler to first practice 3 levels of Air and 3 levels of Water before being able to practice the skill itself.

Hmm, Materia Magica looks promising, im going trough all the help files and information ot the website...this might be it

On the side note, i signied up for a free 30 day trial on dragonrealms, and so far...well..

I tried Dragonrealms and Gemstone IV. They are very polished and there is many things that i do like. DR is a bit too hard i think, the whole RP play and display type is a bit too much i think (no map - only static city map, auto map etc...or atleast i didnt figure it out how to use one lol, no statistic like hp sp etc, everything is written... well written i must admit) but on the other hand little things like:

Look at map

You see lines and dots, none of this make sense to you.

Turn map
Look at map

Boom, you see map of the city. That was great.
Plus levelless system seems great.

Gemstone is more casual i would say. More quests, less RP. Fancy maps and very good client, you can see every thing. Both games have great combat system as far as i can tell, there is distance(for mele, ranged and magic),you can be wounded, have broken limbs etc. I really like it.
Both of them have live events running all the time, no scripts, live. I guess they have to make it up for those monthly charges

I think i will try both of them for next 30 days, and Materia Magica for some time. Then i will have to make a decision. From what i see Materia Magica might be the one
Unless you have other ideas...im happy to listen (read)